The present invention refers to a patch for replacement of a portion of bladder wall, following partial cystectomy.
As is known, when a portion of a patient's bladder is affected by a serious pathology, such as partial malignancy, this portion of bladder must be removed to prevent the disease from spreading to the whole bladder. Removal of this portion of bladder creates a hole in the bladder which is closed by means of a patch sutured to the perimeter of the bladder wall defining this hole.
These patches are taken from the patient's bowel turned inside out. That is to say, during surgery the portion of bladder affected by the malignancy is removed, Then, a patch is removed obtained by cutting the patient's bowel wall in situ, taking care to wash and clean it carefully to eliminate any source of infection, due above all to the intestinal mucus. Finally, this patch is sutured to the bladder wall to close the hole left by removal.
This system nevertheless presents some drawbacks. In fact during surgery it is not possible to eliminate the intestinal mucus entirely from the new bladder, resulting in possible infections.
Furthermore these patches of bowel wall have a short average life. In fact they are unable to go beyond a life of 10 years because of tearing of the intestinal wall which wears out in a period of less than 2-3 years.
Various attempts to produce synthetic patches have not been successful, mainly because the inner surface of the patch did not withstand encrustation from urine.